“Familiar Strangers” – The movie “Familiar Strangers” is a funny and heartfelt story of an American family going through the natural process of negotiating the changing relationships between parents and children, especially as those children grow into adulthood.
“Familiar Strangers” follows the Worthington family through a four-day Thanksgiving family gathering. Brian, who has moved away and kept his distance for the past several years, is reluctantly returning for this family tradition carrying the baggage of conflict with his father, Frank.
Frank feels he has failed as a father, having lost the ability to connect with his maturing children. When the children grew to adulthood and created their own identities and lives, Frank replaced them with his pets, new children “who never have to grow up”.
“Familiar Strangers” is populated by Frank and Brian, mother Dottie who holds the reins on this family beneath the surface, brother Kenny who as a twenty-something has not yet found his path, sister Erin who is struggling to find herself after a painful divorce, and Erin’s young daughter Maddy, truly wise beyond her years.
Through this story and the conflict and communication that occur, the Worthington family comes to recognize the friendship and love that can exist between parents and their adult children.
“Familiar Strangers” – is a real family story.
Now the other synopsis, which couldn’t be more different than what we read above:
In “Familiar Strangers” a young man (Shawn Hatosy) finally returns home only to find he has to murder his father’s beloved dog and lead the family to victory in a high stakes game of donkey basketball.
“Familiar Strangers” follows the long-awaited return of Brian Worthington to his family for an all-American Thanksgiving in rural Virginia. It should be great until his newly divorced sister trashes the turkey, and he is pressured into killing the one member of the family everyone loves unconditionally – their dog Argus.
That’s kind of stressful, especially since Brian suspects his Dad loves the dog more than he loves him.
